Translating A Tradition: Studies in American Jewish History

Divided into three sections, this work explains how the concepts and practices of traditional European Judaism were adapted to North American culture beginning in the late nineteenth century. Part I focuses on the ideas and activities of Cyrus Adler (1863–1940), one of the most prominent leaders of the traditionalist United States Jewish community in his era. The issues in these essays include the origins of American Jewish history as a field of study, the Kehilla experiments of the early twentieth century, and the relationship between the Jewish Theological Seminary and Orthodox Judaism. Part II deals with the beginnings of Hasidic Judaism in North America prior to the Second World War. It also includes several studies investigating the shaping of the worldview of Orthodox Judaism in contemporary North America. Part III examines the issue of contemporary American Jewish attitudes toward evolution and intelligent design.

Ira Robinson (PhD Harvard University) is professor of Judaic Studies in the department of religion at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, and serves as president of the Canadian Society for Jewish Studies. His recent books include Rabbis and Their Community: Studies in the Eastern European Orthodox Rabbinate in Montreal, 1896–1930 (2007), Translating a Tradition: Studies in American Jewish History (2009), and Canada's Jews: In Time, Space and Spirit. Dr. Robinson is the 2013 recipient of the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award.

An engaging and important contribution to the field.

— David Weinfeld, in the American Jewish Archives Journal (LXI, No. 2, 2009)

Table of Contents

Preface

I. Cyrus Adler: Toward the biography of an American JewThe Invention of American Jewish HistoryCyrus Adler and The American: a Moment in the Intellectual History of American JewryCyrus Adler the PhiladelphianTwo North American Kehillot and Their Structure: Philadelphia and MontrealCyrus Adler, bernard revel and the Prehistory of organized Jewish Scholarship in the United StatesCyrus Adler and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America: Image and realityCyrus Adler: President of the Jewish TheologicalSeminary, 1915-1940The Correspondence of Cyrus Adler and Racie Friedenwald Adler: New Perspectives on theDevelopment of American Jewry in the EarlyTwentieth Century (with Dr. Maxine Jacobson) A Supplemental bibliography of Cyrus Adler

II. Orthodox Judaism in North AmericaThe First Hasidic Rabbis in North AmericaAnshe Sfard: the Creation of the First Hasidic Congregations in North AmericaHasid and Maskil: The Hasidic Tales of an American Yiddish Journalistbecause of our Many Sins: The ContemporaryJewish World as Reflected in the Responsa of Rabbi Moses FeinsteinThat Marvelous Midos Machine: Audio Tapes as an Orthodox Educational Medium“Practically I Am a Fundamentalist” : Twentieth Century Orthodox Jews Contend With Evolution and Its Implications